Field of the Invention
Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to an electronic device or electronic devices that are able to reliably provide an alarm or warning to a user at a desired time.
Description of the Related Art
The popularity of portable electronics, such as smart phones, touch pads, PDAs, portable computers and portable music players, has increased dramatically in the past decade. As people have become more reliant on portable electronics they have found more and more uses that reduce the need for more conventional devices, such as digital alarm clocks that are plugged into a power outlet and wind-up alarm clocks. In general, alarm clocks may be used to awaken people who otherwise might over-sleep, preventing them from arriving late for work or other appointments.
Modern digital alarm clocks often feature a radio alarm and/or a buzzing type alarm, allowing a person that is sleeping to be awakened at a predetermined time. The primary use of these conventional clocks is to provide a reminder that it is time to wake up or it is time do some predetermined task. These reminders are typically provided by use of audio sounds, such as music from a radio or an emitted beeping sound. To stop the sound from being emitted, a button or handle on the clock is pressed. While a few conventional digital alarm clocks or other similar wall powered devices are able to deliver web-based music content from providers, such as Pandora® and Spotify®, due to their size and need for power from a wall outlet they cannot be easily shifted from one location to another where the user may reside and are typically not easily setup to play a desired song or audio file when the alarm is desired to sound. Also, if there is a power outage before the alarm reminder is delivered to the user, then the alarm clock, which is the sole device for the delivery of the alarm reminder, will often not be able to deliver the alarm reminder to the user.
Moreover, as the development of software applications that run on today's portable electronic devices have improved, the usefulness and our reliance on these types of portable electronic devices, such as smart phones, tablets and other similar devices have increased. One use of a portable electronic device that has developed in recent years, is the use of the portable electronic device as an alarm clock or general timer. However, portable electronic devices, which are also typically the sole device for the delivery of the alarm reminder, have limitations that make their ability to notify or warn the user that a desired time has been reached or an amount of time has expired is not reliable enough for most users for a number of reasons. One reason is that all portable electronic devices have a finite battery life, and thus their batteries run out of charge rapidly and often unexpectedly. Another common problem found on some portable electronic devices is that some of the devices will not allow some software applications (e.g., non-native programs) to function properly if the software application is running in the background (e.g., program is not “on-top” or the primary program that is running on the device). Thus, in this case, the user will never receive a warning that an alarm time has been reached if the user accidently opens or views another program running on the portable electronic device, since the alarm program is moved into the background. Finally, another common reason is that the operating system or software running on the portable electronic device can become non-functional, thus preventing the portable electronic device from sending the alarm at the appropriate time.
Further, modern smart phones and/or portable music players allow music enthusiasts to listen to music in a wide variety of different environments without requiring access to a wired power source. For example, a battery-operated portable smart phone or music player such as an iPhone® or iPod® is capable of playing music in a wide variety of locations without needing to be plugged in. Conventional portable smart phone and music players are typically designed to have a small form factor in order to increase portability. To improve a user's audio experience it is often desirable to link one or more portable speakers and an audio source, such as a music player or smart phone, together to provide a richer and enveloping audio experience. Due to limitations in standard wireless communication protocols, it is a non-trivial task to setup and control the playback of audio delivered from an audio source, such as a computing device (e.g., music player), which may include an iPod®, iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phone, Samsung phone, Samsung Galaxy®, Squeeze™ box, or other similar audio delivery enabled computing device.
Therefore, there is need for an electronic device that is able interface with the portable electronic device to help provide a reliable alarm or warning to the user at a desired time and/or also provide a desired audio content to the user when the alarm is delivered to the user. Moreover, there is also a need for a reliable, portable, and personal alarm clock system that has at least two independent components that can be used to reliably awaken a user and to avoid the above-mentioned problems.